We look back at the Doomben meeting with some key ratings and pointers to the future.

No doubt it was genuinely heavy ground at Doomben on Saturday with the times and the Racing & Sports going measurements up there with some of the slower ground I've seen in a while, so there will be some forgives.

Spirit Of Boom Classic – Cool Archie

One of the key two-year-old lead ups into firstly the BRC Sires in two weeks' time before ultimately seeing who goes on to feature in the JJ Atkins later in the carnival.

Cool Archie has now won his past three, improving his rating from 93 to 101 and now to 107 on Saturday.

Looking at the historical wining standard of this race, 107 is basically on average, with the mean (since 2010) coming in at 107.9. The median is a touch higher at 109, headed by Rothfire at 115 (who has been edged out in a 10,000 five years later- hat tip!)

Cool Archie rates two pounds higher than Bittercreek (105) last year and well ahead of Cifrado (100) in 2023 and Swiss Exile (103) in 2022.

For comparison, Beadman ran to 113 at Gold Coast last week, comfortably out-rating this. If Beadman goes to the Sires his last start performance is approximately two lengths better than Cool Archie on Saturday.

Chairman's Handicap – Sir Delius

The biggest talking point horse of the day was Sir Delius, the Frankel import for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott who justified strong support with a strong win first-up in Australia.

He came to Australia with a RAS rating of 119, achieved when second in the Group 2 Prix Niel (2400m) at Longchamp behind Sosie, who was already a Group 1 winner and recently resumed with a 124 RAS rating when winning the Group 1 Prix Ganay.

Sir Delius has run to 116 on the RAS scale on Saturday which is comfortably the highest rating winner of a Chairman's Handicap, and actually edges his previous start in the Prix De Le'Arc De Triomphe when finishing eighth, beaten 8.8 lengths by Bluestocking.

The obvious comparison with Sir Delius is the blueprint for a Queensland Winter campaign laid out by Without A Fight, who of course went on to win the Caulfield/Melbourne Cup double- no doubt a path Sir Delius will be on come Springtime.

The exciting thing for Sir Delius is that he's had just seven starts and is already rated so highly.

Without A Fight was already a veteran of 17 starts before coming to Australia, rated 119 (the same as Sir Delius).

He won the Lord Mayor's Cup (1800m) with a rating of 118+, achieved in a different manner to Sir Delius with a huge late sectional mark up. He'd then run 120 (with more sexy sectionals) in the Q22.

I'd imagine the Q22 is where Sir Delius looks next, giving him a few weeks to get over the heavy track run on Saturday before prepping up for the Spring.

He's now second favourite for a Caulfield Cup behind Aeliana, who Racing & Sports have rated 119+ off her ATC Derby win.

I'd love to see Sir Delius win a Q22 on quick ground (which he has done before, running 110 winning a Group 3 at Chantilly at his third start) and show a turn of foot to do so. If he does, I'd be confident in saying he's as good a chance for the Cups double as Without A Fight was.

Doomben 10,000 – Sunshine In Paris

Sunshine In Paris wore down a game Rothfire to score her third Group One win, adding the Doomben 10,000 to her Surround Stakes & Champions Sprint victories.

J-Mac kept her out of the trouble nearer the inside in a bit of a messy race, with the market certainly honing in on her off her third in the All Aged Stakes prior.

She's run to a RAS rating of 116 here which is two pounds lower than her 118 win (and peak) in the Champions Sprint during the Spring, a rating she also ran in the All Aged last time out.

Saturday was the 12th time Sunshine In Paris has run a rating over 110, including the past eight starts where she's run 113 or better.

Going back over Doomben 10,000 winners since 2010, Sunshine In Paris' 116 rating is the lowest, behind The Bostonian (118) in 2019.

The average winning standard in that time is 121 so this is a very low rating Group 1 weight-for-age sprint.

In fact, going all the way back to 2000, I can only find four lower rated winners in the 11 weight-for-age Group 1 sprints (<1400m):

Pippie (115, Moir Stakes 2020)

Gold Edition (115, Manikato Stakes 2007)

Viddora (115, Winterbottom Stakes 2017)

Magnifisio (115, Winterbottom Stakes 2014)

Regardless, Sunshine In Paris is no doubt an excellent, Group One level mare, and the decision to bring her to Queensland when a few other top-liners pulled up stumps, has paid dividends.